to explain unto you what S. Paul further setteth down concerning this man of sin that is the Antichrist yet because they are not such Characters and acts as are proper to him alone and not also common to his Proselites and Followers and some of them likewise do rather shew his judgment how he shall be destroyed than his description how he may be known therefore I will proceed from those sins doings and demeanour of him whereby St. Paul hath painted and set him forth as I have shewed you in the former Chapter to what the holy Ghost informeth St. John he should do whereby the people of God might by what sins and description of him as St. John setteth down plainly know him and avoid him when he should appear in the world for St. John sheweth many of the very same sins and the same doings of the Antichrist though exprest in other terms as St. Paul had done before the same sins by other names and some other like sins added unto what you heard before because he is not satisfied with few sins And first after that the holy Apostle and Evangelist St. John had said they had heard that the Antichrist should come even as St. Paul told the Thessalonians 2 Thes 2.5 that the Antichrist should come that is a great eminent and transcendent Antichrist he addeth that now that is in his time there were many Antichrists that is of a lower form and of lesser mischief than the great Antichrist would be even as St. V. 7. Paul likewise told the Thessalonians that the mystery of iniquity had begun to work in his daies that is by the ministry of those Hereticks and false hypocritical Professors that abused the truth of their Christian Profession then the Apostle St. John distinguisheth betwixt the true Christians and those false dissembling Professors that were those many Antichrists that he speaketh of and the forerunners of the great Antichrist St. John sheweth there be a sorts of Antichrists and he sheweth how the true Christians might be discerned and known by the unction or the anointing of the true Christians with the Grace of Gods holy Spirit whereby they came to know to confess and to profess the truth that is the Faith and truth of our Christian Religion and on the other side he doth say and positively affirm that the denial of this Truth by the hypocritical Professors in the main head that is to deny Jesus to be the Christ is the proper note and the undeniable mark and Character of the great Antichrist which is the head of all the other many inferiour Antichrists that are all destitute of that Unction whereby the true Christians do believe and confess Jesus to be the Christ let them make what Profession soever they please of their Faith and Christian Religion yet indeed they are no true Christians but the great Antichrist if they deny Jesus to be the Christ For saith the Evangelist and that by an Interrogation which is the strongest asseveration that can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 John 2.22 that is Who is the Lyar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ he is the Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son Here is the full description of the Antichrist two things observeable Touching which words you must observe these two special things 1. Two things observable That St. John calleth the Antichrist a Lyar. 2. You are to understand what his Lye is 1. St. John sheweth us plainly herein that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antichrist is a great Lyar 1. That the Antichrist is a Lyar 2 waies 1. By belying his Christian Profession and in that he is a Lyar it implyeth two special things 1. That he is an hypocritical and apostate Professor 2. That he is a crafty and cunning deceiver of the poor people As 1. It is apparent that the Antichrist is an hypocritical and an apostate Professor such as the other lesser antichrists that have been with us and went from us are For this great Antichrist will make a great profession of Religion as if he were the only Saint and the best Christian upon the earth that hath the greatest care that can be of Gods Service for the observing of his Sabbath and the preaching of his Word and the refraining from all Swearing and the like and yet all is but a great Lye only for an outward shew and no more when he speaks that with his tongue which he cares not for in his heart Rev. 13.11 and therefore he is said to speak like the Dragon And why like the Dragon Because that as the Dragon flattered Evah with many great and fair promises to make them like gods and to fill them with knowledge both of good and evil yet all were but lies and every word against his Conscience that knew well enough the listning to his voice and believing his Words would make them like devils so will the Antichrist flatter and fawn promise and profess great matters and make you believe he is a Saint and will bring you all to Heaven when with the Dragon he tells you nothing but lies and leads you straight to Hell And therefore doth St. John say that he is a Lyar that belyeth his own Profession Whether the Parliament members and their adhereÌ„ts did not bely what they professed let the Reader judge And it is demanded whether the Long Parliament Proselites and adherents did not even the like and follow the very same course as the Antichrist is said he should do and prove themselves such Lyars as he should prove himself to be For did they not profess themselves to be the truest Saints the best Christians and the purest Church of Christ that is or that men do know here on earth and that there were no Tares in their field no Chaffe in their floor no Trash in their Net and nothing but Gold on their foundation Psal 26.4 5. And do they not say that they hate the Assembly of the Malignants neither will they sit among vain persons And besides all this have they not tanquam Deus as God and chief ordâ—iner and ruler of all Church-matters rejected cashiered and abolished the formerly established Orders and Ordinances of the Divine Service and as Christ when the old Covenant of works and Legal Ceremonies was to be expired and those rites were to be nullified and done away Heb. 8.9 did in the stead of it set up his new and better Covenant of Grace as the Apostle sheweth So have they not devised and set forth a new and as they say a better Directory than ever was before that is a new form of Divine Worship new Canons of Gods Service and a Service of the new fashion such as neither we nor our Fathers did ever know the like and far better than ever they had and for the observance of that Directory have they not made stricter Ordinances and imposed severer punishments
ipsetemplum Dei S. Aug. de civ Dei l. 20. c. 19. quod est Ecclesia sicut dicimus sedet in amicum id est velut amicus vel si quid aliud isto locutionis genere dici solet which think it may be spoken in Latine as it is in the Greek he sitteth not in the temple of God but for the temple of God as if he were the temple of God which is the Church of God as we say he sitteth for our friend that is as our friend Whereby you may see St. Aug. understandeth that the Great Antichrist would pretend to be the only great friend of the true Church and so in the true Church and not out of it and consequently not to be the Turk in any wise that pretendeth not to serve Christ nor the Pope if we deny the Church of Rome to be the true Church of Christ and therefore we may conclude with Bellarmine Bp Downam de Antichrist lib 10. cap. 3. 4. that the Pope cannot be said to be the Great Antichrist nor Rome the proper Seat of the Antichrist as Downam Thomson and others would have it to be because as I said before the Antichrist must arise in the midst of the truest and purest Church of Christ which we utterly deny Rome to be For the Apostle saith 2 Theff 2. the man of Sin and the child of Perdition which all Interpreters do expound to be the Antichrist shall sit in the temple of God which as the greatest of the School-Doctors Aquinas saith Aquin. in loc and so Tilenus Exegesis 74. pag. 21. must not be understood of the Jewish Temple at Hierusalem that hath been destroyed and shall never be re-edified as some of the best Jewish Rabbines do believe but as S. Chrysostom and the Greek Scholiast pag. 333. and Gorhan and many others do understand it of the true Church of God The Antichrist riseth and reigneth where God dwelleth where the Gospel of Christ by his Faithful Bishops and Painful Ministers is truly preached the Sacraments duly administred and the Flock of Christ rightly Governed and instructed to serve God as they ought to do there the Antichrist will seat himself and there Satan will assist him to overthrow the Bishops to persecure the true Ministers to neglect and nullifie the holy Sacraments to corrupt the Truth of the Gospel and to ruine that Church which Christ thus buildeth For it is observed that the Apostle useth in this place the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Observ which is derived from the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies to dwell or to inhabit God dwelleth in the best Saints and where they dwell because that is the House or place where God resideth that is among his Saints and in his Saints as God himself doth testifie unto his People that will truly serve him And therefore Constantinople where the Turk resideth and hath made the Chancel of San Sophia where the High Altar and the Patriarchal Throne stood to be a Turkish Moschy whither the Grand Signior goeth to the Blasphemous Ceremonies of their False Prophet and the City of Rome where the Pope sitteth and hath apostatized from the true Faith in many Points and corrupted the Gospel of Christ at leastwise with many Superstitions cannot be said to be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where God resideth and the Antichrist sitteth as god to destroy it but it must be that Church wherein God in the most Special manner dwelleth and delighteth in it and that is in the Purest Church that can be found on earth in respect of all the outward things that do constitute the same for you must know that the Church is to be considered two manner of waies 1. Respectu divinae illius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so God only knoweth his Church The Church considered two waies and who are the Members thereof as the Apostle sheweth 2. In respect of that Discipline Rule and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is apparent to our eyes and consisteth chiefly in these four special things Four things do constitute a true outward visible Church 1. In the Prayers of the Saints 2. The Preaching of the Gospel 3. The Administration of the Sacraments And 4. Obedience to the Discipline of the Lawful Governours And that Church which in these respects is the truest and purest is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Temple and House of God where he dwelleth and which the Devil by his dear Servant the Antichrist laboureth by all means to overthrow Object But you will say Constantinople was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true Church and dwelling place of God and so was Rome when her Faith was published throughout the whole world Rom. 1. and so both continued until the Antichrist suppressed the Truth and seated himself therein To this usual Objection I answer Solut. 1. That it is agreed of all sides and by all Interpreters old and new Papists and Protestants that the Great Antichrist should come towards the end of the world 1. That the Antichrist should come towards the end of the world 1 Tim. 4.1 and in the last Period of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 last times as the Scriptures testifie the same most evidently for though the Mystery of him and his iniquity began by those Hereticks that sprang up in the Apostles time yet was not he to be revealed in his strength and fulness until the last and latter end of times and therefore not any waies like to come and to appear so many Hundred years agone as they prescribe which make either the Turk or the Pope to be the Antichrist 2. 2. That God suffereth not the enemies of his Church to tyrannize long I say that God being so good and so gracious a God especially to his Church and true Servants will not alwaies be chiding neither will he shut up his loving kindness in displeasure but as the Poet saith Nocte pluit tota redeunt spectacula mane Which in the Prophets words I may express that although heaviness may endure for a night yet joy cometh in the morning and he may be sure of it because God himself tells his Church that for a moment in mine anger have I forsaken thee but with everlasting compassion will I have pity upon thee and so accordingly he suffered not Antiochus that was the most lively type of the Antichrist that is in all the Scripture to rage against the Church of the Jews for all their wickedness any longer than Three years and a half neither did he suffer the Captivity of his People in Babylon for their great sins recorded 2 Chron. 36.14 15 16. to last any longer than 70 years nor the Children of Israel to be opprest by Pharaoh for the wrong they had done to their Brother Joseph any more after the Death of Joseph than about 200 years as Helvicus collecteth which is the longest time that I find God seems to sleep and
as if they all were but one man because they all do either reject or neglect Christ and refusing to believe his Words and to obey his Voice by submitting themselves to his Ordinances they do all of them as one Army and one grand enemy fight against him and his Servants under the Banner of his Capital enemy the Devil And as this coetus impiorum the whole Multitude of these wicked Reprobares is by venerable Beda termed the Beast and the Antichrist and the whole Assembly of the Lying Prophets and all the rest of the fawning flattering and dissembling Preachers of the Beast are in the singular number and with the Restrictive Article Junius in Annotat in Apoc. cap. 13.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 termed and said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the false Prophet as Junius testifieth so specially the pessima pars hujus coetus the worst pack the vilest confederates Senatus consultus the great Synedrion the supream Council and the highest Court of greatest Authority in the Kingdom and the Synagogue of Satan which is the Representative and Synechdochically the Mystical Body of the present dispersed multitude and the main summe of the Antichristian company is and may more rightly be termed the Beast and the Antichrist or the man of sin and Child of Perdition as if they were all but one man And the reason The reason why a multitude of men is termed one man Acts 4.32 Revel 17.13 why the whole conglutinate Pack and united Senate of wicked men are spoken of in the singular number quasi unus homo as if they were all but one man is because they all have but one Head that is the Devil and as all the Believers are said to have but one heart and one Soul that is to serve Christ so the holy Ghost saith these wicked Senators and Members of the Beast have but one mind that is one will one course one end and one main scope and desire to destroy the Truth to overthrow the Church of Christ to wear out his Servants and to root out the right Service of God and all Piety from off the earth And as for their unanimous proceedings against Christ and his Church That the worst pack of all the present wicked reprobates when it cometh is termed the Antichrist 1 Sam. 10.23 they are spoken of as if they were but one man so for their transcendent Impiety their egregious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wickedness their unparalleld plots and exceeding all former Presidents in their abominations they are most especially and properly stiled the Beast that ascendeth out of the Bottomless Pit the man of sin and the Antichrist that is the great Adversary of Jesus Christ because that as Saul was higher by the head and shoulders than all the rest of the People so the wicked company of this collected and united Troop of the Servants of Satan is quasi unus è decem millibus such a transcendently abominable Senate as that you cannot find the like and such another among ten Thousands when as all the Precedent Hereticks all former Tyrants and all the subtil cruel and bloody Persecutors of all ages were but Fooles and Dwarfes or Pigmies in respect of this crafty Fox and great Golias that doth so Giant-like defie the whole Army of Christ and so Nimrod-like tyrannise and so Julian-like persecute all the Faithful Worshippers of God And thus the Geneva notes The Geneva Annotat. on 2 Thess 2. do understand the man of sin to signifie the Body of the Tyrants and persecuting Church and the Parliaments Ministers in their Answer to his Majesties first Paper P. 180. in the Isle of Wight do confess that a number of Persons are in the Mysterious and Prophetick Writings exprest in Singulars as the Letters or Epistles that are directed to Collective or Representative Bodies use to be written and directed to one when as they are intended and are meant to all the whole Body in the Meeting assembled and in Pag. 235 they say that many Ministers making up one Presbytery is represented by one Angel as I say hereafter they are August de civ Dei l. 20. c. 19. by that one Beast in Rev. 13.11 And St. Aug. speaking of the Antichrist sitting in the Temple of God saith Nonnulli non ipsum Principem sed universum quodammodo corpus ejus id est ad eum pertinentem hominum multitudinem simul cum ipso suo Principe hoc loco intelligi Antichristum volunt Some will have in this place understood by the Antichrist not the Prince himself but his whole Body in a certain manner Mr Mede in clavi Apoc. pag 65. Dr Hammond in 2 Thess 2. Magdeburg cent 1. l. 2 c. 4. coll 435. Calvin in 1 John c. 2. that is the multitude of men that belong unto him together with their Prince and prime Leader himself And Mr. Mede saith the Beast in REv. 13.1 doth signifie a Company of men composed of a certain order of Members like as a Beast and not one man alone And Dr. Hammond conceives the man of sin which we conceive to be the Antichrist to signifie not any one singular Person but the Grand Captain of all Impostors together with all the whole Sect of Gnosticks and Idolaters that follow him And the Magdiburgenses and Calvin and Beza and most of our Protestant Divines do understand the Beast and the Antichrist to signifie more than one particular man Yet I cannot yield that the Antichrist should signifie as they conceive a multitude of Particular and singular men succeeding one another in the same Throne of Impiety as many Kings do succeed one another in one and the self same Kingdom because herein I see as many Improbabilities and Disagreements with the Scriptures to take the Antichrist for the Series and Succession either of Popes or of any other the like Person Turk or Tyrant as I see Incongruities and Errours in taking him for one single and singular Person when as the Succession of any such Person that is of any one single Person succeeding the like wicked Impe that preceded him cannot be correspondent to all those particular places of Scriptures that are properly to be applyed to the Antichrist nor any one of all the series i.e. not any one of all that succeeded one another did or could act all those transcendent enormities that are singularly to be effected that is to be done by the singular person of the Antichrist or with respect to an unity of the agent at the very time of their acting and within the compass of the time allotted and prescribed to the Antichrist for the doing thereof is to instance a few things out of many to make war with the witnesses to kill them which no one Pope or Turk ever did and to make war with the saints to overcome them which one single person be he what and whom you will of all the series classy either of Pepes or Turks could
without adding the prevalent faction as sometimes for brevity sake I may omit I desire my Reader to remember that I mean only those and that party of whom it is demanded Whether they have not all and every one of the notes and marks of the great Antichrift and have done all the things and fulfilled all the Prophesies that should be fulfilled and done by the Antichrist And because the event of things are the best commentaries upon Prophesies The Events of things are the best Comments upon Prophesies if so it be apparent that all the things sayings and doings that are prophesied and foretold should be done by the great Antichrist are all manifestly seen to be done and fulfilled in them and by them aforenamed and by their confederates and adherents I know not how to give satisfaction to them that demand this question or how to deny them to be the Antichrist and to acquit them from that suspicion But I will leave the answer of these demands and resolution of those Questions to be de ermined by those unpartial Judges that are quicker sighted than I am and I will proceed not to foretel any thing but to explain unto you what the Prophets have foretold us should come to pass and should be done in the time and by the members of the great Antichrist and for the application of those Prophesies as fulfilled in these dayes and by these men I leave it to the better observers of the transactions of our time whether they can rightly do so or not And first That Apostasie or rebellion is the door through which the Antichrist entereth into the Church I finde the Apostle telling us that the door and breach or gap whereby the Antichrist shall have way to enter into the Church and sheepfold of Christ to destroy his flock will be apostasie or rebellion for when the Thessalonians had heard that such a great egregious Antichrist should come and thereupon did presently expect him and then thought the day of Christ his coming to judgment should instantly follow because they had heard that his coming should be towards the end of the world and but a little before the day of Christ his coming the holy Apostle to rectifie their misapprehension of what they had heard and to explain the truth and time of both their comings saith the day of Christ shall not come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quin venerit defectio prius until there be first a failing or falling away 2 Thess 2.3 as Beza translates it or nisi venerit prius rebellio unless there comes a rebellion first as the Syriac hath it and as very many of the best Interpreters say the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth because every rebellion is a falling away from what we should be And this rebellion is conceived by some Authors to be that which the people made in Rome against Nero and by others it is thought to be that which the Jews made against Florus or that which the grand rebell Barchochebas made against Rufus in the time of the Emperour Adrian who did therefore sufficiently chastice the Jews for their apostasie and revolt and others of no small esteem do understand it of the ruine of the Roman Empire and the Provinces revolt from the Roman Empire under the Turk and other apostate Governors of the Provinces as Niger Albinus and the rest that proved false against their Emperors but Mr. Calvin which is ever held the best textuary B. Hall in his Revelation unrevealed Ensebius l. 4. c. 6. even since the Apostles time as B. Hall saith wonders that so many learned men as understood these words of the Apostasie or rebellion of those revolters from the Roman Empire should so far mistake the Apostles meaning nisi quod cum errasset unus turmatim alii sine judicio sequuti sunt eum unles sit be that when one hath erred others without judgement or any further search for the truth have followed him which is an usual fault and a great fault amongst many writers where they see one run they are often ready like sheep without reason to follow after him And yet I wonder not so much herein as Mr. Calvin doth because the Apostle might well mean The rebellion against the Magistrate doth ever precede a recession from the faith and Gods service both the apostasie and rebellion from the temporal Monarchy of Rome as the type or Prodromos and also from the spiritual Kingdome of Christ which is the Church as Estius Anselmus and very many more of our best Protestant writers do interpret it because commonly they that rebel against the one will never stick at the other but when they kick against the Magistrate they will presently spurn against the Priest and God requireth obedience to be observed towards the civil Magistrate as well as to the spiritual Minister neither shall you ever finde that any departed from his true and obliged obedience to his lawfull Governor but he presently apostatized and made a recession from the true service of God as when Jeroboan◠rebelled and made a recession from his obedience to his King he presently made a defection from the true God and a discession from his worship to serve his golden calves and when the Satrapasses and Tetrarchs of the Provinces rebelled against the Roman Emperors they presently fell away from the Church and instead of Christ took Mahomet for their Prophet and the Jews tell us plainly we have no King or will have no King because we feared not the Lord to shew unto us Hosea 10.3 that a discession from Gods service doth ever accompany the rebellion from the civill Government and the rebellion against our Governors is the fore-runner of our discession from the true service of God and the faith of Christ because that our Governors which have the charge to see that the true faith and right service of God be preserved do while they are obeyed hinder this Apostasie and falling away from Gods service but when they are resisted and the bond of our obedience to them broken there is no stop of this apostasie but that every one may be of what faith and do what service he pleaseth and as he pleaseth unto God And therefore I take this apostasie and rebellion that the Apostle speaketh of here What apostasie or rebellion is here meant by the Apostle to be chiefly meant for a civil rebellion against the supreme Magistrate as he is custos utriusque tabulae the defender of the faith and preserver of Gods publique service and a spiritual opposition or withstanding of our spiritual Governors and the discipline of Christ his Church and so a falling from the true Doctrine and the faith of Christ which is the end of that progression and last step of this apostafie that begins in our disobedience and rebellion against Moses and Aaron and ends with our discession from God and Gods service for thus S. Paul saith the Spirit
not understand as to create things of nothing to make the sun to stand still to cause the fire not to burn and the water not to drown to assume our nature into the unity of his person to be born of a virgin to raise up himself from the grave to ascend to heaven and many other such things we believe by faith though we cannot search and finde out the reasons thereof especially in all the books of nature but we cannot yield nor believe that those things may or can be done which we understand and know and can bring many Reasons to prove that they cannot be done as for the same thing to be and not to be when as all the Schooles do affirm Deum contradictoria efficere non posse God cannot do contradictories as he cannot lie because he is truth and he cannot die because he is allwayes and eternally life and therefore though we grant he can make creatures of nothing and reduce all creatures into nothing and change the nature of any one thing into another thing as Lots wife into a pillar of salt of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham to turn Moses rod into a serpent and water into wine and Ovid. in his Metamorphosts if he pleased to Metamorphose all those transformations that Ovid writes of yet that he can make any one thing to be two distinct things at once and still to remain one as to make Moses rod to be both a rod and a serpent at once and to be still a rod and yet a serpent the same one numerical thing to be bread and flesh wine and water stonâ—s and the children of Abraham at the self same time we utterly deny and can no wayes grant it because such things are meer contradictions and do overthrow the truth of God And therefore that Christ should sit in heaven and be the bread that we eat in the Sacrament here on earth that he should be visibly there and invisibly here and that he should be one and many continued and discontinued intire in one place and at the self same time intire in 10 thousand places and such like we cannot believe because these things are not onely contrary to all reason but do also exceed all faith and therefore in all sayings of the holy Scripture that do seem to contrary one another we must finde out such expositions of either place as that neither of them do overthrow the truth of the other nor yet be contrary to the analogy of the faith And this sheweth that the Church of Rome adoring the consecrated bread in the Eucharist with divine worship commits palpable idolatry like unto Babylon by giving the true worship of God to that which is no God and so 2. They give the same divine worship of the true God unto the Saints and Angels 2. To the saints and Angells that are no God for though that by their Doctrine and distinction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they would clear themselves from this idolatry yet if they will erect temples observe dayes and make prayers for the honor of the Saints and Angells thereby to be helped and relieved by them all the streames of Tiber can never wash away their Tdolatry because as Prosper saith the dedication of Temples and Altars and Prayers and the like are proper and peculiar parts of Gods divine worship 2. 2. In worshiping the true God with false worship As the Roman Church giveth the true worship of God to those things that are not God so by their superstitions and many foolish inventions of their will-worship they worship the true God with false worship such as he neither commandeth nor is pleased with them and which to ease my Reader I must pass over 2. The Sinnes of Babylon against man were especially of 2 sorts 1. Covetousness from whence proceeded their fraud and deceit which the Prophet setteth down c. 51. v. 13. 2. Cruelty which diminished and destroyed the children of God and caused them to be scattered like sheep and to be driven away and so truly the iniquity of the Church of Rome is every way equal if not exceeding the iniquity of Babylon and resembles the same as in many other things so especially in respect 1. Of their Confusion and division among themselves For Rome resembling Babylon in three Respects 1. Their Division 1. Of their Covetousness and collusion against all For 3. Of their Injuries and oppression of the best men For 1. Though they bragge much of their unity and say this is a special Argument to prove them to be the true Church of Christ which is a vision of peace and like unto Hierusalem that was a city in unity within it self according as it was afore prophesied of it that God should keep the sheep and servants of Christ secretly within his Tabernacle from the provoking of all men and from the strife of tongues when as yet every unity or rather confederacy is not the Character and true note of Caristianity Psal 2.2 for the Kings of the earth stood up Principes convenerunt in unum and the Rulers took counsel tegether against the Lord and against his anointed and all cryed crucisie him Mat. 27.22 Exod. 32.1 Act. 19.34 crucifie him and all agreed to make the golden calf and all the whole multitude said great is Diana of the Ephesians and all covenanted and conspired against And no marvel for if Satan should be divided against Satan his Kingdome could not stand and therefore we say with S. Augustine that sicut est Dei una Ecclesia sic est Diaboli â—na Babylon as God hath one Church so the Devil hath one Babylon Yet if we look into the Church of Rome we shall finde that howsoever in things that may concern the preservation of their hierarchy they hold together yet in many other things there is such oppositions contentions and consusions amongst them as will plainly shew them to be a Babilon and that as the Poet saith in another case so we may say of them Scinditur incertus studia in contraria clerus For we finde their Councills Popes and Orders crossing thwarting and contradicting each other as 1. 1. The contradictions of the Councils The First Councel of Nice allowed the communion under both kindes unto the people But the Council of Constance and the Council of Basil and that Council of Trent have forbidden to give the cup unto the Laity So the third Council of Carthage accursed him that would call himself universal Bishop but the Council of Trent curseth all them that will not acknowledg the Bishop of Rome to be so And the great oecumenical Council of Constantinople condemned all Images from the divine Worship but the second Council of Nice allowed them and then again the Council of Frankfort accurseth that Nicene Council and accounteth it flat idolatry to worship them or God by them 2.
speeches to gain love and favour 3. Wit and Eloquence to perswade men to aide and to assist him 4. Large promises and great gifts to win them unto him 5. Signes and wonders all pretended to be done from God to draw men to a good belief of all his actions And if all these cannot serve the turn to make men to become his adherents and assistants then 6. Terrors and torments must do the deed and it is demanded If this sixfold Art was not most exquisite in the Presbyterians and the prevalent faction of the long Parliament But to go on to shew you the sins of the Antichrist Aretius as E. H. quoteth him doth thus paint him out saying Invadet imperium Antichristus ac dominabitur titulo justae possessionis ac verae pietatis sed ubi revelari caeperit publicè his notis or nabitur quas Apostolus hic ei tribuit videlicet homo peccati filius perditionis Upon which words of Aretius E. H. doth thus paraphrase E.H. De Antichristo pagina 78. that the Antichrist is called the man of sin because he is the Protector and Patron of many gross sins he rollerates Idolatry and Rebellion he invadeth Kingdoms and under pretence of setting up Piety and promoting Saintship he takes possession of the Throne as if he were the right heir thereof and none is so great a Saint as he if you will believe his words or the flaettering Titles of his Followers that adorn him with most goodly Eulogies but when he shall begin to appear publikely that is to be revealed as the Apostle saith and to be made known by his marks and sins unto the Saints he shall have none other ornaments to put on that is from those Servants of God to whom only he shall be revealed but what the Scripture gives him that is the man of sin and the Son of perdition which is the Title of Judas that betrayed his Master his King and his Saviour and what we read in the Revelation Rev. 11. the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit which will make war with Gods Witnesses that is the Magistrates and the Governours of Gods Church the faithful Pastors and Preachers of his Word and will overcome them and kill them and of whom the Holy Ghost principally saith Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still and never go about to strive to make him clean because it is but lost labour Aethiopum lavare to wash a Blackmoore to make him white And so it is to seek to amend that man of sin and all his wicked followers that think themselves better and more righteous than all others and therefore as our Saviour saith that the Publicans and harlots shall go into the Kingdom of heaven that is be sooner converted before the High Priests and the Pharisees that think themselves to be the only Saints and the bringers of others into heaven so the Drunkards Swearers Whore-mongers Sabbath-breakers Robbers and the like lewd livers and prophane persons may be sooner converted and brought to repentance than this hypocritical Saint and those Saint-like sinners that think themselves most wise and more holy than all others and from this confidence do act all the Villanies Cruelties and abominable Impieties against the Service of God and do such intollerable injuries to the Servants of Christ as that greater cannot be devised Thus you see how this man of sin is described unto you by these Learned men for a most notorious transcendent sinner but all this while it is not agreed upon of all sides whom the Apostle meaneth in this place by this man of sin that should be such an extraordinary sinner for Dr. Hammond and some others would have us hereby to understand Simon Magus because that Justinus Irenaeus and some other Authors do avouch there was a Statue erected unto him and an Altar with this Inscription Simoni sancto deo to Simon the holy God But the truth is that Justinus being a Grecian and not so well vers'd in the Roman Antiquities mistook the Inscription Varro lib. 4. which was Semoni Sanco Deo to Semo Sancus the God for so Varro that was most skilful in the Roman Histories saith Inter Deos Romanorum non obscurus fuit Deus Semo qui Sancus appellabatur Among the Gods of the Romans the God Semo which was also called Sancus was none of the obscurest or meanest God and accordingly Ovid saith Ovid. fast lib. 6. Quaerebam nonas Maresius p. 79. Caracotta p. 25. Sanco fidione dicarem or referrem An tibi Semo pater tu mihi Sancus ait Or as some Copies have it Tu mihi Sancus eris And therefore others as the Commentator upon this place conceived to be Hugo Grotius perceiving this mistake of the Greek Interpreters doth understand Caius Caligula to be this man of sin Sueton. c. 10. of whom Suetonius saith Nec Servum meliorem ullum nec deteriorem Dominum fuisse There could not be a better Servant or Subject than he was and a worser Lord or Master could not be found So that he was brought forth as it seemeth Ut ostenderet quid summa vitia in summa fortuna possent that in him might be seen what the greatest vice or the most vicious men might do in the highest fortune as Seneca writes of him unto Albinus And it is true that Caligula was insigniter scalestus Hyppolitus in Orat de sins seculi Caracotta pag. 6. deinceps a most notorious wicked Emperour yet not meant here by the Apostle under the Title of the man of sin as Maresius and Caracotta prove at large and do shew that the best of all Interpreters both Old and New do assent that the Apostle meaneth the Antichrist that should come into the World a little before the End of the World and not any of these Antichrists that came so soon as the Apostles time But though we cannot digito demonstr are dicier hic est name the man and say This is he Yet from Daniels explication of the acts of Antiochus and from these Comments and Paraphrase of the aforesaid Divines upon the words of S. Paul you may as Moses did from Mount Nebo view the Land of the Canaanites behold some of the sins of the Antichrist and thereby have a shrewd guess who he is For that collected multitude and pack of wicked men which as I shewed to you must be understood by the Antichrist The doings of the great Antichrist shall as you have heard oppose the Kingly Government protect Rebels Hereticks and Blasphemers tyrannize most lawlesly over Gods Servants usurpe the supream Authority change the Laws the Times and the good Customes of the Saints and People of God subdue three Kings or Kingdoms suppress the Governours of Gods Church and the Preachers of his Word and do all this and the like feats upon pretence of Zeal to
propagate the Gospel for the honour of God and the service of his Son Jesus Christ even as Christ hath formerly told us by his Apostles and Prophets that the Antichrist would do And if you have observed any collected multitude to have done these things you may know what to judge though you may not say what you think And though these demoxstrations are very plain A special thing to be observed by most Commentators yet methinks I do observe somewhat in this description of the Antichrist by S. Paul that I find not observed by any of the Interpreters that I have read save what is briefly touched by E. H. in Pag. 76. De Antichristo For the Apostle in this Character of the Antichrist seems to set such an astarisme or as it were a dash with his pen whereby he should be made most palpable unto our hands and most visible unto our eyes if we would but diligently observe it we should not miss to know who he were For 1. The Apostle speaking of the wickedness of this Antichrist speaketh in the singular number and calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man of sin and not the man of sins the which expression besides the Hebraisme that signifieth he should be a very sinfull man as the childe of death signifieth one that is destined and condemned to death doth most certainly give us to understand that the Apostle meaneth that the Antichrist should commit some singular peculiar sin that should only and properly be the sin of the Antichrist and of none else And therefore 2. To inforce the particularity of his sin his proper and peculiar sin That as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noteth and designeth thiâ— proper and particular Antichrist so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 designeth the proper peculiar and particular sin of the Antichrist Epiphan heresi 9. the Apostle doth not simply say that he should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man of sin but with the Article of a special designation both of the man and of the sin that you might take notice as well of the one as of the other he saith he should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man of the sin or the man of that sin by which sin he may undoubtedly and apparently as by a proper badg and character be known to be that great Antichrist that should come into the world when as he only committeth that sin which none but he did ever commit the like for as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie God King and man that is any one of them indefinitely but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do determinately note forth unto us this particular person of God or King or man because as I said before out of Epiphanius the Greek Articles contrahunt significationem ad rem certam leave not the thing they spoke of like an individuum vagum but do tie the signification to a proper and a certain thing so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth any one sin whetsoever but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noteth and pointeth out this very particular sin and not another And therefore they that would know who is the Antichrist 2 special things to be inquired after must consider and inquire diligently after these 2 special things 1. What sin is that which is the formalis ratio that gives esse 1. What is the peculiar sin of the Antichrist the very being unto the Antichrist and by which sin he may be undoubtedly known to be the Antichrist and without the committing of that sin no sinner be he never so great or tainted with never so many sins can properly be said to be this great Antichrist 2. If we can finde the sin that makes the great Antichrist we are in the next place to enquire and search whom we can finde if we can finde any 2. Who hath committed that sin that have committed that sin and when we have found the sin and who hath committed that sin if we can finde them we have found out the great Antichrist that is spoken of by the Prophets and hath been long expected and much feared by the Church for as John Baptist saith of Christ I knew him not but he that sent me to baptize with water John 1.33 said unto me upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost and is the Messias and the Christ so whosoever coâ—â—itteth this proper and peculiar unusual sin the sin of the Antichrist only the same is he because the Antichrist only is the man of that sin that is which only committeth that sin and none else but the Antichrist committeth it 1. Then we are to ask and seek and to search disigently to know what sin is the proper and peculiar sin of the Antichrist and I shall with the help of Gods holy Spirit do my best to finde it out and I am sure this sin of the Antichrist is like the Antichrist himself a most notorious eminent and transcendent sin unheard of among the Heathens unknown in the world and uncommitted by any other sinner That all sinnes are not equal untill committed by the Antichrist and a sin when it is committed so perspicuous to all mens eyes as is the beacon upon a hill so destructive unto mankinde so odious so abominable and so hatefull in the fight of God as that no other sin whatsoever is altogether so destructive unto mankinde or so hatefull unto God as is this sin of the Antichrist for it is a paradox among the Philosophers and much more among the Divines to say that all fins are equal when as this sin of the Antichrist is more detestable in the sight of God than any other sin whatsoever as I hope to make it very plain unto you before I have done the canvassing of this beast And what sin may that be which is so transcendent so destructive unto man 1. Oservation and so odious unto God as none more May it not be the sin against the Holy Ghost which is a known wilfull malicious What sin is the peculiar sin of the Antichrist total and final Apostacy from the formerly professed truth of the Gospel and faith of Christ and a perpetual persecuting of the same impenitently unto the end with a most obstinate refusal of all grace and a despair of all pardon from God Surely this must needs be a most haynous sin and I believe the most hurtfull and destructive to the sinner that commits it of all sins because as our Saviour saith it shall never be forgiven him either in this world 1. Not the sin against the Holy Ghost 1. Reason or in the world to come yet I am perswaded this is not the sin that is most destructive to mankinde and most hatefull unto God or that is the proper sin of the great Antichrist 1. Because many others besides the
the Son and by rejecting and denying Christ that is the Son they reject and deny him that sent him that is the Father and so by denying hindering and suppressing these substitute officers of Christ that they shall not live to execute their office they reject and deny both the Father and the Son because these master and servant Christ and his Deputies as Kings and their Embassadours are Relatives and so indissolubly knit together that you can neither oppose suppress nor deny the one without the other and therefore quia per latera nostra Christus petitur because Christ is thrust at and wounded through our sides that are his servants Act. 9.4 he saith unto Saul Why persecutest thou me when he neither did nor meant any hurt to the person of Christ that was in heaven but abused and persecuted his servants that were on earth which is the true meaning of the Apostle in this place or otherwise if you expound these words literally of him that by denying the Son to be essentially one God with the Father denyeth the Father to be a God because the Father and the Son are so essentially one that no man can deny the one but he must deny the other then cannot this speech of the Apostle be properly applyed to the Antichrist because that if such a denyer of the Son to be one with the Father be the Antichrist you may finde many thousands of the Antichrists in the world But of such as profess to honor the person of Christ Let the Reader judge whether this be fulfilled in the long Parliament that is in heaven and yet quite deny suppress and extinguish his Deputies and Officers that should execute the Offices of Christ here on earth we shall finde none but the great Lyar that is the Antichrist will do the same And whether the long Parliament did thus deny the Father and the Son by denying them that the Son hath sent as the denyal of him whom the Father hath sent is a denyal of the Father as well as of the Son let the judicious Reader judge 2. 2. Way The great Lyar may be said to deny the Father and the Son when he professeth to believe in the Father and the Son and yet denyeth with the Arians Nestorians Eutychians and other old Hereticks the termes and rejecteth the notions and expressions whereby we come to understand and make the people likewise to have some competent measure of knowledg in the great Mystery of the holy Trinity how the Father and the Son and so the Holy Ghost are the only true God as our Saviour saith John 17.3 John 17.3 the which thing the Pope never did I am sure of it But whether the long Parliament Divines and their Proselites the false prophet 1 John 2.19 and the Independant Apostata's that are such Antichrists as the Apostlespeaks of that went out from us and were not of us and such sons of the Church Whether the Assembly of Presbyterians and Parliament Preachers may not be said to deny the Father and the Son let the Reader judge as S. Bernard speaks of Filii nequam filii scelerati qui scaeviunt in matrem do not thus deny the Father and the Son when they reject and refuse the words Essence person unity Trinity and the like words that totidem syllabis cannot be found in the Scriptures and do likewise cashier and exclude from Gods service the Gloria Patri Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost and cast away from all use that most excellent Hymn Te Deum laudamus te Dominum confitemur and others the like holy Hymnes and expressions of our Faith which S. Ambrose S. Augustine and other godly men and after them the whole Church of God Penes quam norma loquendi that hath the power to coin words to explain the truth have ever used to bring her children to some understanding and a competent measure of knowledge in that great and ineffable mystery of Godliness which is the unity of the Godhead in the Trinity of persons and è contra the Trinity of persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in the unity of Essence or Godhead and to make the weaker Christians and the weaker Divines the better able to answer and to confute those wicked Hereticks that are alwaies ready to arise as now they do to deny the truth of these holy Mysteries let the wise and experienced Divines judge hereof For the Apostle meaneth not as I said before that he which in plain termes and with spen mouth denyeth the being or the God-head of the Father and of the Son is the Lyar and the Antichrist but as the crafty fool that durst not say it openly yet cunningly and secretly saith in his heart There is no God Psal 53.1 and 14.1 is a meer Atheist though he never uttereth that atheistical wickedness with his mouth so are they meer Antichrists and great Lyars that say they do believe these Mysteries and yet secretly and maliciously deny the Father and the Son though not directly yet by infallible consequences when they deny those notions and expressions whereby we come to know the Father and the Son though they profess the contrary in their words which makes them to be the Lyar because they say one thing and do another that is still the propertie of the Antichrist to do just so as they do And therefore Let the Presbyterians think of this and repent seeing he is the Antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Son as the Apostle saith and that he which denyeth and rejecteth them that are sent denieth and rejecteth him that sent them as our Saviour testifieth and that they also which deny the notions and expressions whereby we come to know the Father and the Son do by consequence and in very deed whatsoever they say to the contrary deny the Father and the Son it must needs follow that the deniers and suppressors of them that are sent by Christ and the diniers of those notions and the rejectors of those expressions whereby we come to know the Father and the Son must be the great Lyar and the Antichrist from which charge though I accuse them not yet I know not how the Assembly of the long Parliaments presbyterian Divines will excuse themselves and be quitted cum surrexerit ad judicandum Deus when the Son of God shall call them to an account for it let them think of it in the interim For What is to be understood by the name of the Lord our God as he that denieth my name whereby I am made known denieth me and he that denieth his own name denieth himself because his name is the chiefest note that makes him known and as when the Lord saith Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain because his name is that which chiefly makes him known to us and by his name there all Divines
and inabled for this space of 1200. and 60. years to build up the Temple which was commanded to be measured to be reared up But then it is said v. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when these two witnesses That the two witnesses shall be killed thus orderly strengthning and assisting each other shall have finished or end their Testimony that is accomplish the full space of 1200 and 60 years the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make warre against them and shall overcome them and kill them three short sentences and three great wonders for 1. Three great wonders in these three short Sentences 1. Wonder Zech. 2.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beaft shall make warre with them and is it not wonderfull that the beast should make warre with Gods witnesses for if he be a Warriour and will needs make warre can he fight with none or finde none to fight withall but with the witnesses of Jesus Christ for this is to fight against God himself and to touch them is to touch the apple of his eye as the Lord professeth most plainly in Zechary 2.8 and therefore hoc magnum est hoc mirum this must needs be a wonderfull thing that any beast should venture to make warre with Gods witnesses but the second thing here said is more wonderfull For 2. 2. Wonder He shall make warre with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he shall overcome them Indeed they are filii pacis no Swordmen no men of blood though the King weares the Sword because they are the Sonnes of Oyl and the Children of peace and the King weares the Sword principally to preserve peace and the Office of the Bishops is to be evangelizantes pacem the preachers of peace through Jesus Christ and therefore in this respect it is no wonder that the Antich which comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all power both of Arms men and money should overcome these harmless men but is it not a wonder that God whose Servants they are and whose witnesses they be should not onely suffer this infernall beast to make warre with them but also to vanquish and to overcome them yes indeed it may seem marvelious in our eyes and it stumbleth many men and makes them to think ill of Gods witnesses to see them subdued by the beast which they would not so mis-judge if they would with the Prophet consult with God why he suffereth the wicked so to prosper and his own Children so to be punished And yet 3. The last point is most wonderfull and far more marvellous then the former 3. Wonder that he should overcome them for it followeth that he shall overcome them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he shall kill them what will nothing serve to quench the thirst of this beast but the blood of these Saints and the death of these witnesses and will God suffer his own dear servants his choycest Officers the rulers of his people and the witnesses of his onely Sonne Jesus Christ How God suffereth many things to be killed and murdered by this beast for this will make men to believe as many do that these witnesses are the beast and the beast to be the best witness of Jesus Christ but they might remember that as God suffereth all this so many times he suffereth much more then this as when he suffered Joseph to be sold into Egypt Vrias to be killed Daniel to be thrown into the Lions Den Shadrach Meshac and Abednego to be cast into the fiery furnace and above all and more strange then all his own dear and his onely Sonne to be killed and crucified by the like beast and they might think that God knoweth what is best and that he doth alwayes what is best and as the Apostle saith worketh all things together for the best for all that love him Rom. 8.28 so that their conquered condition proves to be their happiness and their enemies Victory to be their misery for though God suffered them to be vanquished and killed yet then are they Blessed Psal 116.15 and as the Prophet saith right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and much deerer is the death of his holy Martyres the Witnesses of his truth whose blood he will most assuredly avenge on them that dwell on the earth to make them most miserable Questi But here the question is that seeing the two Witnesses of Christ are the supreme Magistrate which is the King and the chiefe Priest which is the Bishop the Civil and the Ecclesiasticall Governours of Gods people and it is the Beast that ascendeth from the Bottomless pit which killed them who be they that are killed if they be killed and who is that beast that hath done it if it be done Respon I answer that Mr. Brightman thought that this Prophesie was fulfilled in the Smalcaldick War under Charles the 5th the which mistake Mr Mede doth sufficiently confute so that I need not stand to disprove this errour but if I demand whether King Charles and his Magistrates and the Bishop of Canterbury and his Clergy were not the Witnesses of Jesus Christ I presume none will none can justly deny the same and if againe it be demanded whether the long Parliament and their adherents did not make war with the King and accuse the Bishops and most of the rest of the grave Doctors and faithfull Preachers of this Church for innovation and a high Project of bringing in Popery into this our Kingdome which unjust suspition and groundless jealousie they spread every where among the people to set them on fire and to gallop unto the War against the King to press him to subscribe confirme and ratifie their covenant whose principall scope was to roote out and to overthrow the Hierarchy and the Ecclesiasticall Governors of Gods people which were the Bishops and the other faithfull Witnesse of Christ I beleive all this is so well known to all the Kingdome that every one will confess it and as they cannot deny the War with these Witnesses so they must yield that these two Witnesses both King and Bishop were vanquished and killed I am sure that Parliament hath overcome the King and he is killed which was the supreame Magistrate and one of the two Witnesses of Christ And I find the names of such persons as did actually sit as Judges upon the Tryall of his Magisty with the Councill and attendants on the Court which they called the High Court of Justice to be these JOhn Bradshaw And I do set them down that all posterities and their Childrens Children and whose embrioes are not yet in being may understand who had the honour to be the Judges of this good and Godly King to condemne him to death And I would have it observed that of these 32. were Colonels and three Generals that fought against the King and all of them a party that warred and waged the warr against him and
chief Prelate were killed about the same time by the same persons and for the same cause as it seemes the two witnesses of Christ were to be and our King and Bishops were for the pretence of fear of bringing in Popery as here it did 1. The King which is the supreme Magistrate and 2. The Bishop which is the chief Praelate Pastor of the People should be killed about the same time by the same persons and indeed upon the matter for the same cause whatsoever pretences should be alledged the which cause is shewed to be the malice of the Dragon to the woman and her Child and to slay the witnesses And I do verily believe that if learned Junius Beza and others the like wise and learned men had lived in these times and had seen the things that were and are done in these dayes of the last Century of years among Protestants and in the best reformed Churches they would have interpreted this and many other parcels of Scriptures far otherwise then they have done and no marvel nor any disparagement to their learning and wisdom because as I said before Prophesies and Predictions mystically set down are not perfectly understood untill they be fully accomplished and fulfilled And therefore as the Holy Ghost had set down in the 11th Chapter how the two witnesses of Gods truth and the Governours of his Church should be used persecuted and killed by the Ministers of the Antichrist the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit so here in the 12th Chapter he sheweth how the Church her self and all her members should be molested afflicted and persecuted by the Serpent that had formerly seduced her out of Paradise and now followeth her into the Wilderness makes Warre against her and throwes a whole flood of miseries and mischiefs upon her to see if he can utterly destroy her and being exceedingly vexed and filled with wrath that the woman should be any wayes helped as she was by the earth and earthly members that opened their mouthes to speak for the innocent Children of the woman and thereby swallowed up many of those bitter waters that the Dragon had spued upon her that all the Servants of Christ and the observers of the witnesses should not be wholly and irrecoverably destroyed he goeth about to make warre with the remnant of the womans seed and yet it is not said that he made this warre with the remainder of the womans seed after the death of the witnesses because they were so few that they were not able to warre with him but he went about to make warre with them and to that end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he stands upon the Sands of the Sea for these words are the conclusion of the 12th Chapter and not the beginning of the 13th Chapter and they are to be referred to the Dragon and not to St. John as our English Translation mistakes it and the meaning is that the Dragon intending to prosecute this warre against the remainder of the faithfull Christians that observed the witnesses and did their duties in the service of God as they ought to do and so kept the Commandements of God and had the Testimony of Jesus Christ that they were 〈◊〉 true and faithfull servants stands upon the Sands that is upon the rest of the Preachers of Gods word and those faithfull Clergy-men and other zealous and conscionable Christians that used and observed the right form of divine service or the right mazner of serving God Who are meant by the Sands upon which the Dragon standeth which the faithfull and slain witnesses of Christ had prescribed and obeyed their Governours and submitted themseives to the Discipline and to the uttermost of their abilities justified and defended the same Government which the true Governours of Gods Church had ordained and he trezdeth and trampleth these Sands under his feet for as the Sands are placed by God to keep in the Seas within their bounds that they should not overflowe the Lands so is the Lawes and Discipline of the Church and those faithfull Ministers and others that observe the same a stop and a bridle to refrain the people and to hinder them from passing over the bounds of equity and piety and though the Discipline and sentence of the Church seemes but a weak fence to keep out the wild beasts and to retain in the fold of Christ his sheep and of little force like a paper bullet to terrifie the wicked from any evill yet as the Sands that are but of a small substance do notwithstanding keep in the raging Seas and as the twigs that tie the hoopes of a Hogs-head or Tun are but very small and yet are the preservatives of the Wine so are the Lawes and Discipline of the Church though not capitall nor bloody yet sufficiently able like the Sands to suppress the raging waves of wickedness from all the Children of the Church How the Dragon stands upon the Sands But now saith the Angel the Dragon stands upon these Sands treads down all holy orders rageth against all the Discipline of the Church throwes the observers of them out of their Churches deprives them of their livings stops their mouthes with terrors and threatnings and as he had formerly slain the witnesses so now he raiseth the windes stirreth up storms and all the Tempests that he can Judge if this also be not fulfilled in the time of the long Parliament to blow away these Sands that adhered to the witnesses and endeavoured to keep in and to restraine the waters of the Seas and the wickedness of the people from overflowing and wheresoever these windes do blow and these Sands are stood upon I pray God to give them patience to overcome these stormy winds and Tempests Amen CAP. III. The three principall enemies of Gods Church Satans 1000 years imprisonment when begun and when ended when the Christian Religion tryumphed over the Idolls of the Gentiles and over all the Gods of the Heathens that the beast signifieth the great Antichrist and a pack or confederacy of most wicked men from whence it sprung of the seven heads of the beast what they are handled at large and the Authours opinion of the seven Kings and the eighth that is the beast and the Antichrist 3. AFter that the Angel which Christ sent unto St John had informed him of those sad accidents that should befall unto the witnesses in the 11th Chapter and the state and condition of the Church of God under the person and title of the woman for the space of 1200 and 60 years and the persecutions that she must undergo after the end and expiration of those years that began as I shewed unto you about 382. and ended in or about 1642. in the 12th Chapter he proceedeth in this 13th Chapter to shew unto him the Instruments that the red Dragon raiseth up and the Devill useth to become the murtherers of the witnesses and the persecuting enemies of Gods Church and I
Weapons were but paper Bullets and his Speares but feeble quills and therefore though they may prevail in Hierusalem the City of God yet oftentimes corruit in platea veritas the Steel cuts the quills in peeces and the truth is trodden down in the streets of Babylon where the Devill ruleth and where this head of the Beast thus wounded with the Sword of truth was healed for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wound of his death or his deadly wound was healed saith the Text that is by the Weapon salve and by the Warre that they made against the truth because the wound was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi mortifera as it were a deadly wound Non quod revera talis erat sed quia talis videbatur not that it was struck dead indeed for then it could not have been healed Cohnelius a Lapide in loc but that it seemed so and did appear sufficiently to be so to all honest men as Cornel. a Lapide well observeth for it was such a wound that although to them which obey not the truth but are like the fool Harpaste that as Seneca saith How the deadly wound of the Parliament was healed was as blind as a Beetle and yet nesciebat se esse caecam would by no meanes be perswaded that her eye-sight failed her but that the Room was dark the Kings confutation of their lyes the detection of their falshood and the manifestation of the truth and his innocency were like Cassandra's Prophesies and would give them no satisfaction yet to all those that had their eyes open and had sence to perceive the light of truth this head appeared to be so sufficiently wounded that it was plain and bootless to adde any Playster to revive it or to have it further to be disputed But it is conceived that the Parliament hoped to thrive better by Club-law then by any truth and therefore in this question they will needs dispute the matter again and for a melius inquirendum the question must be decided by the Sword that often beats down the truth and prevails against the right And so now herein Quia opera Dei judicia ejus occulta esse possunt in justa esse non possunt Augustinus God that in and out of his secret Councel doth all things well and cannot do any thing ill or unjust though we know neither the causes nor the reasons of his doings permitted as the Prophet saith he did in his time veritatem in platea corruere the truth to be trodden under foot and as he gave leave to Satan to overthrowe the House of righteous Job and to slay his Children every one so he gave way to the Quack salvers to heal with their Weapons of Warre the wound that the King and the Prieft had made with the Sword of truth And Mr. Medes Reason to prove the Roman Empire revived by the Pope to be this head that was wounded videlicet because that whatsoever evill the Beast is mentioned to have committed whatsoever adoration or worship is done unto him all that is said to have come to passe after the curing of his wound for I saw saith St. John one of his heads Mr. Mede p. 54. Mr. Medes reason to be applied rather to the Parliament then to the Empire revived by the Pope in Charles the Great as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed and then he addeth and all the World wondered after the Beast that is now being healed they wondered after him and worshipped him and he opened his mouth in blaspemy c. all after his healing and none of his hainous acts are mentioned or any subjection done unto him or any honour conferred upon him by the Nations before his wound was healed I say this doth in all things agree with the long Parliament far better then the Roman Empire revived by the Pope for the Eastern Empire which was the best part of the Roman Empire was quite lost from him and never revived by him since the time of Momyllus called also Augustulus and the Western Empire conferred upon Carolus Magnus the Sonne of Pepin King of France was ever since rather weakened then revived by the Pope that hath made it a Skeleton to rest in Germany without much honour besides the title and with lesse power then ever it had before but for that Parliament we know that till their deadly wound was healed by their Sword and by their Victories and successes neither did the people yield unto them their subjection nor the Nations round about them honour them with such Complements nor themselves commit such horrible wickednesses as afterwards we have heard and some have seen so amply done but when their wound was once healed and they became Masters of all that opposed them then began their Io Paean and all the foresaid things succeeded and they are said to have proceeded a malo ad pejus and as the Poet saith From bad to worse from worse to worst of all 10. How all the World wondered after the Beast And therefore it is said then v. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the World wondered after the Beast so they did after the Parliament and so they might wonder well enough to see the falshood of the Parliament in their accusation against the King and his Party so clearly detected and the truth and uprightness of the Kings proceedings so fully confirmed to the World and yet to finde these like incredulous Jewes and like Jannes and Jambres to resist Moses and to wage Warre against the truth and against all right and to prevail against them which is able if any thing be able to make all the World wonder at it The Parallel as the Holy Ghost saith they did for who would not wonder 1. To see men so impudent as to warre against the truth and against innocency Two things to be justly wondered at and Children warring against their Parents and subjects against their King and which is more 2. To see iniquity prevailing against equity and wickedness against piety and the followers of the Antichrist against the Servants of Christ But though this may move us to wonder at it and to wonder much at all this quia mirabilis Deus in operibus suis because God is wonderfull in all his works and more especially wonderfull in his judgements Psal 37.35 when suffering the wicked to flourish like a green Bay-tree he chasteneth his own Children every morning and hedgeth their wayes even with thorns that they cannot step aside Hosea 2.6 but they shall be wounded yet we may not by any meanes forsake oppressed righteousness and be partakers with the wrong-doers in their prosperous iniquity and though to the amazement of all beholders we see God permitting them to thrive prevall and prosper in all their wayes yet must not we cast our lots with them V. 4. To worship the Beast what it signifieth Hinc male
in the eares of the Lord from off the Earth And so all their Narratives of their extraordinary Victories and most fortunate successes in Ingland Ireland and Scotland do not prove them to be the Saints of God nor their doings acceptable in his sight but they do sufficiently prove that they have made Warre with the Saints and have overcome them and as the Prophet Daniel hath typically prophesied of the Beast The Parallel Dan. 7.25 2 Thes 2.3 have worn out the Saints of the most high and they may confirm the faith of those that believe them to be the Beast here spoken of and the great Antichrist that is prophefied of by the Apostle Yet to shew the weakness of flesh and blood and the blindness of frail man to understand and to judge of things the Holy Ghost saith v. 8. that the Victories and successes of the Beast do so far prevail with all that dwell upon the Earth that is all earthly and worldly minded men And as H. Grotius rightly saith morem ejus imitari that they are moved thereby to worship the Beast that is to admire him to adhere unto him and to assist him in all his projects and persecution of the Saints which is done as the spirit of God saith by all those whose names are not written in the Book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World that is by all carnall and worldly men that are not inlightned with the truth of Gods spirit But I would advise both them and all men else seriously to consider how fearfull is the condition of those Worshipers and assistants of the Beast when as God himself doth testifie they are not in the Catalogue of Gods Children but are bletted out of his Book as Reprobates to be tormented with the Beast in the Lake of fire burning with brimstone for evermore And therefore our good God gives a Caveat to all the Servants of Christ in the next verse saying if any man have an ear to hear that is a will and desire to hear let him hear that is so attentively and considerately that he might rightly understand what he heareth for that is not a matter of small moment and slightly to be passed over but they that have any regard of their eternall salvation or desire to avoid everlasting destruction ought carefully to examine who are meant by the Beast and then seriously to weigh in what sad and lamentable condition the Worshippers and adherents of this Beast do remain in Then for the comfort of the persecuted distressed and subjugated banished Captives and for a just reward and retaliation to the oppressing Conquerours Of the end and downfall of the Beast that is the body of the Antichrist the spirit of God addeth v. 10. He that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity and he that killeth with the Sword must be killed with the Sword for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth and you know the Proverb must is for the King truth it self hath spoken it that it must be so and he hath spoken it often therefore it shall undoubtedly be performed and the Beast shall not rule for ever Let my Reader judge if this Prophesie of the downfall of the Beast be not now fulfilled blessed be our good God for it nor the persecuted Saints be oppressed for ever but the Saints shall be delivered out of the hands of the Beast and the Beast shall be excluded out of his Dominion and shall receive his pay when God the just avenger of all wrongs and specially of all blood unjustly spilt shall render their due deserts unto all the members assistants and adherents of this outragious monstrous Beast in the time that they look not for it onely let the Saints with patience constantly expect it and with faith assuredly believe it even as the Holy Ghost hath said Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints i. e. patience quietly to suffer while they are under the rule and the rod of the Beast and faith undoubtedly to believe the dethroning and the downfall of the Beast which will be but the beginning of his sorrowes when as his greater punishment and destruction is still behind and I shall more fully declare it unto you hereafter Liber Tertius CHAP. I. Who is to be understood by this beast of the earth not Mahomet nor the Idolatrous Priests of the heathen Temple when S. John was banished into Patmos That the Preachers of the antichrist and not the Bishop of Rome and his Clergy but the assembly of Presbiters Independants and Lay Preachers are the Prophets of the first beast when the seed of this beast of the earth was first sown and when it became first apparant in these parts and that this beast of the earth is far worse then the first beast that arose out of the sea THen after that the Evangelist had exprest the forsaid particulars of the seven headed and ten horned beast 4. The vision of the second beast which is as the soul of the Antichrist he proceedeth verse 11. to tell us of another vision how he saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another beast coming out of the earth where the holy Ghost followeth the same method as he did with the Prophet Ezechiel Ezech. 8.6.13 15. to shew him greater abomination then he had formerly seen in as much as the most opposite place to heaven is the earth and is farthest from it and a far baser Element then the Sea so is this beast that rose out of the earth far more wicked more odious and more abominable in the fight of God and all good men then the other that arose out of Sea as the Sequel of what we read in this thirteenth Chapter will make it plain unto you But first we are to inquire who is to be understood by this beast Who is to be understood by this beast of the earth that can be worst then that beast that ascended from the bottomlesse pit and is the same with the great Antichrist And I find some Divines as Rupertus and others that think this beast of the earth and the other beast of the sea to be the same beast that first rose out of the sea Not the same with the beast that rose out of the sea and then was seen again to spring out of the earth But the description of this beast and his actions likewise do so far differ from the first beast that it cannot be the same especially considering the Evangelist saith plainly it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another beast therefore not the same with the former And yet as the soul and body that are not the same do notwithstanding constitute and make up one and the same man so doth this beast and the other former beast make up the same man of sin and the same great Antichrist this being as the form that as the matter this as the soul that as the body
and new as well Protestants as Papists do believe the testimonie of Irenaeus and assent to his opinion that lived long before Epiphanius and therefore could better inform us of the time of his banishment then Epiphanius could that he wrote this Revelation in the later end of Domitiani reign and Doctor Hammonds reason to confirm his supposition doth no wayes infringe the allegation of Irenaeus which is the banishment of all the Jews out of Rome by Clandius Caesar for though Claudius banished them out of Rome yet we do not find that he confined any of them to this or that place but rather gave them libertie to go to dwell where they pleased so they departed out of Rome as it appeareth by Aquila and Priscilla that were driven out of Rome Act. 18.2 but were permitted to go to inhabit where they would and therefore these and the rest of the Visions of this book that were after the revealing of them to be fullfilled cannot be understood to be referred to any times or persons before Domitians time And though the holy Ghost saith these Revelations were of things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 1.1 v. 3. which must shortly or suddenly come to passe and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the time i. e. of their fullfilling is at hand yet doth not this any way prove but that many of them might continue unfulfilled to these our times and many remain to be accomplished after our time in the ages that are yet to come because all the time from the first coming of Christ on earth to the second coming of Christ to the last judgement which is the last Age of the World is termed by this our Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last hower John 2.18 Pet. 4.7 and by St. Peter it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last time And he saith further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end of all things is at band and St. Paul saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet a very little little while Heb. 10.37 he that is to come will come and will not tarry And Christ speaking of his coming to the last judgement as appeareth plainly by the manner of his coming with his reward with him to render unto every man according as his work shall be useth the very same word as is here alleaged for the speedy fullfilling of these Prophesies Revel ult v 12. saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 behold I come suddenly and therefore whensoever any of these Visions is or shall be fulfilled it is shortly and suddenly absque mora without delay even as the holy Ghostsaith And he that would see this error of Grotius more fully discovered and confuted Mares p. 169. let him look into Maresius in his dissertati◠de antichrist◠where he shall find the truth of what I say more largely and most excellently confirmed And so Hyppolitus Carocotta saith Epiphan heresi Alogor c. 33. that the authority of Epiphanius who in the herefie of the Alogors affirmeth St. John to be in Patmos and to have written this Revelation in the time of Claudius is of no validity And he further saith that solenne est Epiphanio caespitare in Historia Epiphanius faileth often in the History and he sheweth how Petavius the Jesuite noteth in the Margin Epiphanium mendose Claudium posuisse pro Domitiano and then produceth St. Hierom. de script Eccles and Eusebius in Chron. and Baronius that putteth this his banishment in the ninth year of Domitian Baron an Christi 92. Sect. 1. Three others understand by this beast the preachers of the Antichrist Bellar. l. 3. c. 15. de rom pontifice Junius annot c. 13.11 in c. 17.12 which was 35. years after the death of Claudius But to return to this beast other learned men as St. Greg. Aretas Rupertus and as Bellarm saith Richardus Anselmus and Haymo by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beast that rose out of the earth do understand the Preachers and Proclaimers of the greatnesse and the worthinesse of the Antichrist And so Junius likewise in his Annotations saith it signifieth the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchie quam pseudo prophetissam vocat and further addeth that à Johanne pseudo prophetae appellatione donatur the Evangelist St. John calleth this very beast the false prophet as you may see in cap. 16.13 and cap. 19.20 therefore this beast must signifie some Preachers that pretend to reach the wayes and will of God unto the people And truly I am in part of Junius his opinion and I do subscribe to the judgement of the aforesaid Fathers that by this beast we are to understand some Ecclesiastical Persons that undertake the preaching of Gods word either lawfully called or illegally intruding themselves into the Sacred Function of the Ministery and both sorts most wickedly corrupting the truth and seducing the flock of Christ and so Irenaeus one of the most Antient Interpreters of this book of the Apocalyps hath observed and it will so appear to any one that will compare cap. 13. v. 13.14.15.16 where you may see how this beast is subservient to the other beast with the 19. chap. v. 20. where the other ten horned beast was taken and with him the false Prophet that wrought miracles before him and with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast Mr Mede p. 65. So this beast is none other then the false prophet And so Mr. Mr Mede p. 65. Mede taketh this beast to signifie some Ecclesiastical Persons and so do I. But with their favour I take them not as Junius takes them for the Roman Clergy nor as Mr. Mede meaneth for the Pope and his Cardinals which is the same that Junius meant This second beast exerciseth all the power of the first beast c. 13.12 but the Pope exerciseth his own power but I say that this beast cannot signifie these men because the practice of this beast doth no waies agree with those Prelates nor those Prelates of the Roman Church do any whit cohere with the particulars of those things that are here mentioned to be acted by this beast for the Pope and the Cardinals of Rome as all men know and our men tax them for it do exercise their own power and use their own authority and not the power of the other beast which Junius and his followers make to be the Rom. civil state or imperial dignity and those Prelates say as you may obviously see it in Bellarm. Becanus and the rest of that Church that as the Moon borroweth her light from the Sun so should the Civil state take and receive all her directions and form of Government from the Church and the Governors of the Church of which they pretend to be the chief Object And if you say as our men do that would have the Pope and his Cardinalls to be this second Beast that they exercised the Power of the first Beast when the Empire was weakned and
Questio But you will say what shall we do in this case when such men as have not been lawfully called shall come to preach unto us and to do the service of the Lord Solutio I answer that you should do as the Prophet Jeremy adviseth you and as our Saviour Christ counselleth you believe them not and because faith cometh by hearing the Prophet tells you thus saith the Lord of Hosts hearken not unto the words of these Prophets that speak visions of their own heart Jerem. 12.6 Matth. 24.26 Jerem. 23.16 John 10.5 What the Cocarrice useth to do and our Saviour saith my sheep will not follow a stranger neither will they know a strangers voyce but they will stop their ears as the Cocatrice that will not hear the voyce of the charmer charme he never so wisely but will lay one ear close unto the ground and stop the other ear with her tayle that she may not be charmed with his sweetest musick so should we deal with those Preachers that are not lawfully admitted to be the Ministers of Gods word for as a little Colloquiutida spoyled all the pot of pottage 2 Reg. 4.40 that the children of the Prophets cryed out mors in olla and a little poyson infects the whole messe of meat so a few dangerous errours are able to destroy many of the hearers of these Preachers And therefore as it is not safe to taste of a poysoned dish so it is dangerous to hear an heretical or schismatical Preacher and as the Lord demands of them quis requisivit haec who hath required these things at your hands Psal 50.16 and again why takest thou my lawes in thy mouth that is to preach them unto my people when as thou hatest to be reformed that is to go the right way to do thy work so Christ bids us to take heed how we hear Mark 4.24 and so consequently to take heed what we heare and whom we hear for as it is a fin in them to run to preach unbidden and unsent without a warrant and without commission so it is a sin in us to be partakers of other mens sins and we make our selves as guilty in hearing them as they are in preaching to us because they would not preach to us if we did not hear them and the same God that forbids them to preach that are unsent forbids us to bear them that are unauthorized for they that come in by the window and not by the dore that is the usuall accustomed and ordinary way to come to any house John 10. they are thieves and robbers saith our Saviour Christ and Chemnitius whom Brightman saith was prophesied of in the Revelation of Saint John to be the giver of a mighty wound unto the Antichrist saith certum est ex verbe Dei neminem in Ecclesia audiendum esse qui non legitimè sit vocatus it is certain out of the word of God that we ought to hear none in the Church which is not lawfully called Chemnit loc com de Eccles pag. 129.1 Clemens in epi ad Corinth de success ministrorum imo Ecclesia non debent nec possunt cum fructu audire eos qui non habent legitimae voeationis testimonia nay saith he the Churches ought not nor can they with any fruit hear them which have not the testimonials of their lawfull calling and if you look into Saint Clemens which lived about the year of Christ 113. you shall find him to be of the same mind and therefore the Church ordained that Priests and Deacons should not depart from one Diocesse to another without letters demissary from their Diocessans that the Churches might not be deceived by them but be sure of lawfull Ministers O but the people are glad to be eased and to be freed from those large Salaries and payments of their tythes and offerings which they were wont to pay to their old Pastors and do esteem it better to have the word of God brought unto them by these men that do it as the Apostles did it freely then by those that look so plentifully to be rewarded for it To this Saint August briefly answereth that neither the covetous worldling nor the miserable Christian shall go free but quod non capit Christus rapit fiscus Hag. 1.16 what the Minister of Christ shall not get the soldier and perhaps thine enemy will have and what they have by their exchange they may ere long well put it as the Prophet saith into a broken bagge But were it so that the soldiers and Lay-Elders would still continue and preach alwayes to them for nothing which I shall scarce believe yet I would desire all good Christians to remember what the Prophet David said unto Araunah when he offered as a King unto the King his ground and his oxen his instruments and his wheat 2 Sam. 24. 1 Chr. 21.24 to bestow them freely upon him to serve the Lord nay saith King David but I will buy them of thee at the full price neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord of that which cost me nothing because the Lord commandeth us to honour God with our riches and we ought not to love our gold better then the service of our God And so you see by their intrusion into this sacred function uncalled and unauthorised these Lay-Preachers are one especial head of Cerberus and a principal branch of this false Prophet And 2. 2. The inability of the Lay-Preachers proves them to be the false Prophet 1 Tim. 1.6 7. As their usurpation of this office and their false entrance into it is one main argument to prove the same so their ignorance and weaknesse to discharge this office is another argument to confirm it and Saint Paul speaking of such teachers telleth Timothy that before his departure divers had swarved from the true faith and had turned aside into vain jangling desiring to be teachers of the Law but understanding neither what they said nor whereof they affirmed and so now these Lay-Preachers of the Gospel whose office is as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth import to publish the glad tidings of salvation by Jesus Christ unto the people will be alwayes jangling in the harsh musick of the Law to bring men as they do many tender consciences into fearful desperation because as the Apostle saith they understand not the right use of the Law The twofold reason why the Lay-preachers do misinterpret the Scriptures nor how to make the right application of it and so the do in like manner misapply the promises of the Gospel and pervert many places of the holy Scriptures and the reason hereof seems to be two fold 1. Their ignorance and want of arts languages and learning to search and to find out the truth 2. The obscurity and difficulty to understand the holy Scripture 1. Because they are ignorant and unlearned men 1. The wisdom of a learned man cometh
by opportunity of leisure and he that giveth his mind to the Law of the most high is occupied in the meditation thereof and will seek out the wisdom of all the ancient and be occupied in prophesies he will keep the sayings of the renowned men and where subtle parables are he will be there also he will seek out the secrets of grave sentences and be conversant in dark parables But how can he get wisdom that holdeth the plow and that glorieth in the goad that driveth oxen and is occupied in their labours and whose talk is of bullocks for he giveth his minde to make furrowes and is diligent to give the kine fodder so every carpenter and workmaster that laboureth night and day and they that cut and grave seales and are diligent to make great variety the smith also sitting by the anvill and confidering the iron work setteth his mind to finish it and watcheth to polish it perfectly and so the potter sitting at his work turneth the wheele about with his feete and fashioneth the clay with his arme and is diligent to make clean the furnace And all these and all others the like Tradsemen that trust to their hands shall not be sought for in Publick Counsell nor sit on the Judges Seat Ecclesiast 38. and 24. Vsque ad 34. fin cap. for they cannot understand the Sentence of judgement nor declare what is justice and therefore they shall not be found where parables are spoken saith the wise son of Syrach And if such lay men and tradesmen cannot understand justice and judgement in Civill matters nor find out the sayings aphorismes and parables of men how shall they be able to search out the deep things of God and to understand the Mysteries of the Holy Scriptures for 2. It is not an easie matter and of small labour and without learning 2. Because the Scaipture is full of obscurity and very hard to be understood to explaine the Scriptures to reconcile different Texts and seeming contradictions and to unfold the sence and mysticall meaning of the Holy Ghost as you may find by what the Apostles say in 1 Tim. 3.16 Heb. 5.11 and 2 Pet. 3.16 how difficult and hard a matter it is to expound the Great Mysteries of Godliness and how by reason of that difficulty the unlearned and unstable do wrest them to their own destruction for you may observe that although Christ taught the people in the plain yet he taught his Disciples in the Mount Luke 6.17 Matth. 5.1 Luke 5.3 4. and while the people stood on the shore he bids his Apostles to launch forth into the deepe to shew unto us that as Origen saith the Scripture consisteth of an outward barke which is soft and tender and may easily be plained and of an inward substance which is hard and tough and cannot so easily be squared or as S. Gregory saith that the Doctrine of Christ and the Mysteries of the Holy Scriptures are like the Ocean sea where a lamb may wade by the shore where the people stood and the Elephant may swimm in the deep where the Apostles launched forth to Teach us this Truth Many things in Scripture easie to be understood as the heads 1. To be done 2. To be believed that the meanest capacity the vulgar and lay people may understand out of the Scriptures what they should do as to fear God to Honour their Parents to obey the Magistrates not to kill not to commit adultery not to steal and the like and the chiefe necessary Heads of their Christian Faith as to believe in Jesus Christ that thorough him they shall have remission of their sins and Eternall life and that this truth is Sealed unto them by the blessed Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper and yet the strongest Head the greatest Wit and most exquisite Schollers may find there such depth as cannot easily be dived into but will soon swallow them up and like the Sun in his full strength dazle and confound their fight The reasons of the difficulty to explain and to understand the Scriptures 1. The diversity of Languages if they be not very carefull to go the right way and take great paines and earnestly pray to God for his helpe to understand the same And the reason of this difficulty to explain and to unfold the Scripture is manifold as 1. The diversity of Languages wherein the same was written and the great affinity of the Hebrew with the Syriac and the Chaldick tongue with the very many equivocall words of the Hebrew Language which made the Jewes themselves many times to mistake the meaning thereof as 1. When Christ said destroy this Temple John 2.19 Marck 14.58 and in three dayes I will raise it up they thought he spake it of the materiall Temple when he meant the Temple of his body and the same word signified both the one and the other 2. When he told his Disciples Matth. 19.24 Luke 19.25 it was easier for a Cammell to go thorough the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and this was a proverbiall speech among the Jewes when they spoke of any hard and unlikely thing to be done it was easier for a Cammell to go thorough the eye of a needle as Caninius observeth out of their Talmud and yet most men and many good interpreters and of no small learning have understood the word of that great and large fiz'd foure-footed beast called a Cammell whereas the word indeed quo hic utitur paraphrastes funem anchoratum significat which the Paraphrast saith our Saviour used signifieth a Cable rope which being untwifted may easily pass thorough an needles eye and so may the rich man enter into the Kingdom of Heaven if he disperseth his wealth and give them to the poore though as our Saviour saith it is easier for us to untwist the Cable rope then to perswade the rich men to part with their goods and give them to the poore or to any pious uses 3. When he cried out Math. 27.46 Eloe Eloe Lamasabacthany the Jewes said he calleth for Elias when as the words fignified My God My God why hast thou forsaken me 4. When John 20.16 after the resurrection of Christ Mary turned her selfe towards him and said Rabboli which is Master Tremelius saith that in this word either the letter Lamed is put for Nun and so Rabboli for Rabboni or else it is a composition of the Noune with the Pronoune and Rabboli is put for rabbonli and it is not properly any Hebrew word but a Chaldaic and Syriac and it is said to be an Hebrew word quia tunc temporis Syriaca lingua hebraeis esset vulgaris because that the Syriac Tongue was then common amongst the Jewes when they had lost the use of their own Tongue in their Captivity and had learned in that space of seventy yeares the Idiomes and the phrases of the Conquerors and the
the greatest Doctors and best Scholars in Gods Church must follow Saint Augustines rule to understand Gods word S. Augustines rule how we may come to understand the Scriptures where he saith agant orando querendo legendo bene nivendo ut intellig ant that is earnestly pray to God for the assistance of his Spirit and diligently to search and seek by continual studies in the reading of Gods words and consulting with the best learned Authours which God hath given for our help and constantly to lead an upright and a holy life that God may be intreated by these means to enlighten their understanding that they may understand his revealed will And now all the premises considered I demand how dares the Lay-Preacher the rustick Plow-man and the City trades-man and the blood-thirsty souldier with their miry shoes upon their unwashen feet approach to that place of Gods presence which Moses himself while he was thus was forbid to do and there with defiled hands and prophane mouthes not rightly divide the word of God but most miserably to teare and Massacre the Holy Scriptures so shamelesly that it would make not onely our eares to tingle but also our hearts to tremble when we consider how the Divine Truth is abused and the Name of God blasphemed by these rude and ignorant Interpreters that are the best Seedes-Men in the World to sow the Tares of errors heresies and blasphemies among the pure wheat in the field of Gods Church because as St. Augustine saith hine ownes Hereses The premises teach three things dum Scripturae bonae intelliguntur non bene all heresies do spring from hence when the good Scriptures are ill interpreted So this that I have shewed of the difficulties of many places of the Scriptures and how hard it is to explaine and to reconcile them should teach us these three things 1. It should deterre and stop the presumptuous attempts of ignorant men from medling with the interpreting of Holy Mysteries 2. It should move all good people to love and honour all those learned Clergy that are able to Teach them the Truth and to unfold the Scripture truely unto them and not regard the bawling and barking of those whelpes that speake against Learning and Learned Men for if many of the Apostles were unlearned God inabled them with the gifts of Tongues and fitted them with learning Miraculously Act 14.12 2.1 2 3 4 c. and doth not that Miraculous descending of Learning and Languages upon the Apostles shew unto us how necessary Learning and Languages are for the Ministery or is the Learning of St. Paul any thing the worse because he had it not miraculously he needing it not so but in an ordinary way being brought up at the feet of Gamaliel so is Learning and the gift of Tongues now any thing the worse because we have it not as the Apostles had it miraculously but in an ordinary way as St. Paul had it and left more ample fruits of it unto the Church then most of them that had it miraculously But the truth is that Learning and the understanding of Arts and Tongues howsoever gotten in an ordinary or an extraordinary way miraculously or by industry it is from above and a speciall gift of God for so the Scripture saith the Lord hath given me the tongue of the Learned Esay 50.4 and therefore learning is not to be slighted nor these Lay-Preachers that want it to be regarded because the Scripture cannot be vnderstood nor the Divine Mysteries well expressed without a competent measure of Learning and Languages even as the Apostles themselves could not well do it untill they received the same miraculously 3. It doth in the second place make good my second Argument and sufficiently prove these Lay Preachers to be one of the heads of Cerberus and a speciall branch of this false Prophet here spoken of because of tâ—eir ignorance and want of good literature to inable them to expounâ—d the Scriptures Why the Presbyterians charge the Roman Clergy to be this false Prophet And neither of both these Arguments can be justly urged and applyed against the Roman Clergy to prove them to be this false Prophet as Junius and our Presbyterians would have them to be but as the Fox that being hunted for his knavery shewed a hare unto the hounds that the dogs running after the hare he might laugh in his sleeve and passe away so they by making the people to believe that the Priests and Jesuitâ—s are this false Prophet do think that themselves may pass unsuspected and to be taken for the true Ministers of Jesus Christ For though materialiter they of Rome may as they do Teach many points of false Doctrine yet formaliter The Roman Clergy are noâ— liable to these reasons that demonstrats this false Prophet they cannot be said to be this false Prophet modo forma as he is here described 1. Because they are by a successive unbroken line from the Apostles time lawfully called and Ordained by prayers and the imposition of the hands of those that have the Lawfull Power and Authority to ordain them none dares in that Church intrude himselfe into any of these Sacred Functions but such as are lawfully admitted into Holy Orders 2. The works of those Clergy men do sufficiently demonstrate they are no ignorants but learned enough in all arts and sciences if they had the grace to make a right use of their learning And here before I passe from this point you must know that we have now two sorts of Lay-Preachers 1. One without any Ordination And this 2. The other of a false Ordination And this False Ordination that is done only by other Presbyters without the Bishop is no Ordination at all no otherwise then when my Lord Chancellor makes one a Justice of Peace and that Justice of the Peace will presently take upon him to make others Justices of the Peace like himselfe and you know the Authority of such second Justices is of no validity because the one had no power to give it nor the other any right to use it and so it is with those Presbyters that are made onely by the Presbyters they are none other then meere Laicks 2. 2. The Independant another branch of the false Prophet Another head of Cerberus and a speciall branch of this false Prophet is the Independant and this Independant is but a bastard Presbyterian or an illegitimate child begotten of the luxurious seed of the Prtsbyterians and the frothy sperme of the fanatick people that disdains as much to be subject and guided by the Classis of the Presbyterians as the Presbyterians do kick against the Government of the Bishops and both the one and the other do spring from the same root of pride and ambition and they run the same way of disobedience and opposition to their lawfull Governors and they aime at the same end to be Masters and Rulers themselves and therefore
they could find to put these offices and the government of the Churches into their hands and they thought it well in such a kingdom as this of Ingland if they found 26. men that with the help and advice of their brethren their Deans and Prebends were sufficient to govern the Churches so wisely and so orderly as they ought to do it and do you think it is as easie to finde 6000. men that are fit to do it that you may place a Bishop in every Parish I think you will faile and your selves at last will see your own folly and smart for your mistaking when every Parish Priest will be as imperious over you as Hildebrand was over Henry the fourth But 2. Touching the working of strange miracles we say it was a great miracle 2. To work strange miracles 1 Reg. 17.23 Acts 9.4 John 11.44 that Elias did to raise the dead child of the widow of Sarepta and a great miracle that Saint Peter did to raise Dorcas an old widow that was dead to life again and it was a greater miracle that Christ did to raise up Lazarus out of his grave when he had been dead four dayes And yet besides their many meaner miracles that these Presbyters say they do they pretend if you will believe them to do things that are far more miraculous and greater wonders then any of these or them either that Moses or Elias or any other of all the Prophets or Apostles ever did for we are sure that neither of all those either did or could raise a soule dead in trespasses and sins to the life of grace but this being as it were a new creation it must be left alone to God for ever whose proper work it is to create a new heart and to renew a right spirit within us yet this beast and the disciples of this false Prophet do boast and brag unto the people of the multitude of Saints that they have begotten to God when as indeed they have of late seduced them to be as false and as rebellious as themselves What wonderful thing the Presbyters do Psalm 51.10 The discourse of a Presbyterian with the Authour Esay 53. â—â— And so one of them asked me where were the Seales of our Apostleship the signes and evidences of our Bishops and Prelatical mens ministery how many soules had they converted unto God and where were those converts whereby they might approve themselves unto the people to be the true Ministers of God as they could do by the confession of their Proselytes and I answered that I feared their converts were but perverted and that I conceived it was not in mans power to convert soules when as the Prophet cryeth who hath believed our report and again all day long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and a gainsaying people and if it had been in mans poower to work faith in the hearts of the hearers then questionlesse Rom 10 1. c. 9.3 We have not the power to convert souls this great Prophet would have done it in the children of Israel and Saint Paul would have converted the Jewes his own brethren according to the flesh whom he did so dearly love as himself doth testify to have believed in Christ but we know that although the false Prophets may easily pervert men to disloyalty and wickednesse because the devill is alwayes ready to help them and natural men are prone to evill yet we cannot convert men to the true faith and to goodnesse Acts 15.19 unlesse the Spirit of God cooperateth with us to open the hearts of our hearers as he opened the heart of Lydia when the Apostle preached unto her because as Saint Hierom saith inanis est sermo docentis nisi intus sit qui docet the Preacher may say with the Prophet in vacuum laboravi I have laboured in vain if God by his spirit doth not preach unto the heart And therefore their wonderful brags of converting soules are but lying wonders not to be regarded by any man that regards the truth Psal 15.12 and these hornes are not the hornes of the Lamb but ungodly horns and the horns of the ungodly which as the Prophet saith shall be broken by the Lord all to pieces That the two horns may signifie the two Testaments Torres in sua Philosophia morali pag. 849. Texeda pag. 6. of his miracles unmasked Or else these two horns as Cornelius à lapide saith to whom I subscribe may signify the two testaments which are robora ornamenta Christi the strength and ornament of Christ and the language of the lambe which bring men to believe in Christ rather then then all the miracles of Christ for as Torres out of Lactantius saith non idcirco à nobis creditur Christus quia mirabilia fecit sed quia vidimus facta esse omnia quae nobis annuciata sunt vaticinio prophetarum Christ is not therefore believed by us because he wrought miracles which Vespasian did and the idolatets of China do and the false Prophets by our Saviours testimony may do but because we have seen all things accomplished which were foretold us of him by the Prophets The paralell This is infallibly fulfilled in the Paesbyterians And the beast layeth claim to these hornes and so of all the Preachers and Prophets Papists or Protestants it is well known that none pretend more love and more right to these hornes then the Presbyterians and the Independant and Lay-Preachers do for they reject all other learning and all authorities of Counsells Fathers Poets Orators Histories and all other Books and will allow of nothing but the pure book of the holy Scripture they will have none other horns but these which they say are the hornes of our Lamb and no Christian will denie them to be so nor gainsay the strength and authority of these hornes And yet as A lapide rightly observeth as I told you before of it A good obserservation of Cornel à lapide in loc this beast is said to have not the two hornes of the Lamb but two hornes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like to the horns of the Lamb and every Sophister can tell you that nullum simile est idem that which only is like a thing is not the thing and therefore though they cry out with the false Prophets of the Jewes os Domini loquutum est the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it for they preach nothing but Gospel and the pure Scriptures of the two Testaments and it is we and not they if you believe them that run to the puddles of humane authorities yet in very deed it is no such matter for the holy Ghost that best understandeth both the language of the Lamb and of this beast tells us plainly in the very next words that although their horns be like the horns of the Lamb yet in truth Why this second beast is said to speak like the Dragon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beast speaketh like the Dragon that is though their words are pretended to be the words of Christ yet that which they aim at to effect are the plots of the Dragon and I beseech you mark it the first beast had a mouth like a Lion but this second beast spake like the dragon and why so because the first spake Magnalia great and glorious things what would they not do The paralel if they might have what they desired so you may remember what fair promises the Parliament made unto the King and the second spake mendacia lies and falshood which is the first language of the old Serpent the devill who is a lyar from the beginning and the father of lyes saith our Saviour Job 8. John 8. and so is the false Prophet and as the Dragon cloathed his lyes with sair speeches and large promises saying you shall be like Gods knowing good and evill so the Apostle tells us Rom. 16.18 2 Pet. 3.26 Mat. 4.6 these false teachers that make divisions in the Church and Rebellions in the Common-Wealth and dissentions among neighbours do with good words and faire speeches deceive the hearts of the simple and what are those good words but the very words of the Holy Scriptures then which no words can be better yet St. Peter tells us the Scriptures may be wrested abused and misapplyed as the Devill did to Christ and so do the false Prophets Trenens l. 1. c. 1. for seeing they come in sheeps clothing it behoves them to bring nothing but good words even the most blessed words of the Holy Scriptures in their mouthes but as Ireneus speaketh adaptare â—upientes ea quae bene dicta sunt iis quae male adinuenta sunt ab ipfis they are alwayes striving to fit those things which are well spoken in the Scriptures to what they have misinvented so did the Valentinians to establish their thirty couples of Gods and Goddesses so did the Arians to deny the Divinity of Christ so do the Papists to justifie their Purgatory and so this Beast the Presbyterians and their Disciples do to uphold all the wicked Tenents that they have invented to oppose their King to expell their Bishops and to extirpate our Lyturgy and service of the Church out of the Church and to spread many other points of their desperate Doctrine which is if any thing be the Language of the Dragon though they speak it in the good words of the Holy Scriptures and fair speeches which is a counterfeit shew of much purity and holiness that so with this shadow of piety they might the sooner make the people believe they are the onely Saints Stap in his counter blast and their words the very truth and language of the Lamb. And I think the adherents of the Long Parliament and this false Prophet scattered as many lies in their Bookes and Pamphlets as Stapleton collecteth out of Bishop Horne if we had but such another Stapleton to pick them out and if you can name any Pope that published more lies then this false Prophet I shall subscribe to the opinion of the Prosbyterians that he is the beast which speaks like the Dragon But Sir John Presbyter confesseth that although they pretend nothing but Scripture yet the Blasphemies Treasons Heresies Incongruities Tantalogies and Absurdities of his brethren and children the Presbyterians in the large measure of their Prayers and Sermons observed by the people hath been a great cause of his untimely death p. 5. 3. It is said v. 12. that this two horned beast exerciseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Power of the first beast or rather all the Authority which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth more properly fignifie and he causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast Bezius de regno Ital. l. 4. c. 5 1. c. 6. which cannot be applyed to the Pope and his Cardinalls that say the Temperall Sword is and ought to be subject to the Spirituall as Bozius Hostiensis Bellarmine and the rest of that Church do avouch and I shewed you before how this false Prophet the Presbyterians Independants and Lay-Preachers did all that they acted by the Authority aud under the Power of the Parliament Hostien in can quod supor his c. Bellarm. de rom pontif l. 5. c. 5. The parallele Of the power of the second beast plainly fulfilled in the Presbyterians and therefore they Preached and perswaded all men especially the Inhabitants of the earth as the holy Gh. saith all such as were as earthly and as worldly minded as themselves to adhere and to assist the Parliament against the King and his Party which is just as is the worshipping of the first beast that is the temporall state and which is and hath been alwayes the property and practice of all false Prophets to shelter themselves as the Arians did under Constantius and to further their Projects under the wings of their Powerfull Protectors whom they do therefore magnifie perswade all others to worship them that they might thereby effect their own wicked deeds and be secured from the Power of the Church Then 4. Of the miracles of the false prophet 4. It is said v. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he doth great wonders where I take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not for a disjunctive or causative as Mr. Mede takes it but as it is commonly used for a copulative to that which went before as that this second beast used the Power and Authority of the first beast and being protected and furthered by the Power and strength of the first beast they did thereby great wonders and so St. Paul saith 2 Thes 2.9 the Antichrist should come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with signes and lying wonders and our Saviour saith Bellar. Antichr prodigia potius praestigia daemonum mera mira quam vera miracula statuit de notis eccles c. 14. the false Christs and Prophets that are the followers and promoters of the Antichrist should arise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and should shew great signes and wonders whereby you may see that both the beast and his instruments the Antichrist the false Prophet and the whole troope of his disciples shall pretend to shew signes and wonders to deceive the people and the signes that they shew are just like the signe that Judas gave unto his followers a kisse which is a pretence of love and great kindnesse but it was both destructive to Christ and deceitfull to the followers of Christ so the beast and the false Prophet do kisse those their Proselites with good words and faire promises whom they intend to allure to foule acts and to betray them to evill enemies and so the people are thereby deceived and the Church of Chrift destroyed But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wonder which the false Prophets are said by Christ to do Aquinas in 2 Thes 2. Prodigia quasi